SCCL plans INR 10,000 crore capex
Financial Express reported that Public sector coal miner Singareni Collieries Company is planning a capital expenditure of INR 10,000 crore to be invested over the next five years. The investment would cover acquisition of new coal blocks, expansion in new mines and setting up of power plants. The management has set a target of 85 million tonne of coal production by the end of 2022-23 from 62.01 million tonne achieved in 2017-18. SCCL has 47 coal mines and has cash reserves of INR 6,000 crore.
Mr N Sridhar chairman and managing director said that “During the past few years, Singareni Collieries has witnessed a rapid growth in terms of output, revenues and profit, putting the company into a profitable path. To sustain the growth momentum, SCCL is looking at expansion, taking up new mines in the state and coal blocks in other states. SCCL will be taking up seven blocks in other states and 48 mines in Telangana to meet the power demands of the state and also the demand from other states. For this fiscal, the capex earmarked is INR 2,000 crore with coal production of 68 million tonne.”
The company has already taken up the Naini coal block in Odisha that has a capacity of 500 million tonne and is in the process of taking up a new one, New Patrapura block. Apart from this, Singareni is also gearing up to take six more new blocks in Odisha and Chhattisgarh states. Telangana’s chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who has special interest in the diversification of SCCL, has wrote a letter to the Prime Minister in this regard . Once these new blocks are taken up, SCCL will reach a total production of 100 million tonne.
The company’s thermal power plant has stood fourth nationally by producing 19,036 million units of power through its 1,200 megawatt, besides a 800 MW critical thermal power plant is also on the cards. Further, a 300 MW capacity solar power plant are also being taken up in 12 areas. This is expected to be completed by 2018-19 with an initial capacity of 130 MW.
Source : Financial Express